Well, this is a surprise. Several websites have a preview up of Apple's next Mac OS X release - it's called Mountain Lion, and continues the trend of bringing over functionality from iOS to Mac OS X. Lots of cool stuff in here we've all seen before on iPhones and iPads, including one very, very controversial feature: Gatekeeper. Starting with Mac OS X 10.8, Apple's desktop operating system will be restricted to Mac App Store and Apple-signed applications by default (with an opt-out switch), following in Windows 8's footsteps.

The iPhone/iPad paradigm has proved a massive success. And certainly for many (by far the majority) of users it will be an improvement over assuming that the users understand the risk at which they put themselves by recklessly clicking at links and installers.

BUT...

I'm not one of those users. The instant, I no longer have the option to install whatever I want, I will ditch Apple. I've been with Apple since circa 1983.

Apple's measures means less family tech support for me. But the instant I can no longer install what I want (I might go so far as tolerating resorting to CMI commands), then I'm switching to Linux or BSD, both of which i'm comfortable with.